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Soil is wonderful for pots, it holds moisture for plants in pots that dry out quickly. But, in a terrarium, potting soil can hold moisture too long and lead to mold and funk! And, for plants like succulents, soil is almost a sure way to rot them out.

So here's what we do:

We have found that in terrariums, planting in sands is beautiful, easy and successful! You can have multiple colors to plants in, layer with and blush (our term for dusting an accent color).

Garnet from India

Planting: Using sands is simple and easy....remove only the extra soil from the plant and place it in the terrarium glass. Then, simply pour in the sand so that it comes up to the base of the plant. Now you can use other pebbles and colors of sand to create texture and dimension!

Monterey yellow sand

Watering: The sands are fine enough to hold water for the plants, but also dry out quicker than soil. This is ideal for plants like succulents that need to dry out in between waterings. We water succulents in the sands once a month.

For tropcial plants that thrive on more moisture we water once every two weeks.

Garnet Sand

Beauty: Not only are the sands easy, successful and practical, but they are beautiful!

When soils dry out they become exhausted, crusty and pull away from the edge of the container.

The sands give color to the landscape! Imagine creating a desert terrarium with warm reddish hues, or a forest terrarium with sparkling black sands.

Mineral grit

People often come into the shop trying to wrap their head around the layering process of a traditional terrarium that uses layers of pebbles, charcoal and potting soil. The sands simplify the process of planting and give a lot of options for creativity. Whatever substrate you choose it's lovely to create a terrarium! Create and enjoy the process!